Haystack

Saturday's TT was phenom, but, DAMMIT, I thought I was flying. Warm up felt great, but then, the zipper to my skinsuit got stuck down literally right at the start line, after a dip into the porta-potty there. It was so funny...I was shaking and freaking out like "SOMEONE HELP!!!". Oh well, I didn't let it get to me, and was now ready to go...

Leg 1 (Out to nelson) - Awesomeness. Felt so good...and I flew. Punched it to Nelson, knowing that whole next leg was gonna be FAST and not as "hard" as it was with a tailwind and pretty much downhill

Leg 2 (to 75th) - FLOORED it. Was in the 55 / 11 the WHOLE time except for maybe juuuust coming out of that turn. I passed about 4 guys on this leg and was very happy I had that bigger ring on. I kept it going up that little rise, and, was using the layout of the course as little accomplishments (i.e. just get over this hill and it's easier...don't give up!)

Leg 3 (to Neva) - Felt good still. Made it up that rise and passed another 4 people...I was thinking to myself...holy shit...I'm going to win this thing...I'm flying!

Final leg (to the finish) - I glanced down to my power control breifly to see my time and it read something like "27:15". I thought...wow...10 more minutes and it's spumante time!!! Hit the 4 way stop and still, passed another 4 people.

Then....yikes. I think I lost a LOT of time on that final stretch into the headwind. That really hurt me...almost to the point that I was in my 42 once crossing that little bridge (vs the 55) trying to keep the cadence & power up. That final stretch up Neva was gonna "separate the men from the boys"...so, my mantra was "Men from the boys dude!! Be a man!!! Be a man!!". It helped me get through it, but I ain't gonna lie, I was tired. I tried shifting back and forth between gears in both front & back to try to get the back speed up, but I just couldn't!! I crossed the line pretty spent...drool and snot ALL over the place. I was very certain that I went as hard as I could and just left everything out there.

Then, I check the results. I notice on some of the previous categories that some people are in the high 30's (i.e. 37-39min), and, I rolled in at 41:33 or something. I checked the SM3 results because usually I can get an idea as to how I did when I look at some of those times. The really ultra fast guys (the top 5 typically) are the barn burners, and, if I'm about 2 minutes off of them, it's usually a good day. I was ~ 3-4+ in some cases. I got discouraged, and started second guessing myself as far as my effort goes. I mean, I knew I went hard, but, I totally thought I went FASTER than others. I ran into a few teammates in the parking lot and casually asked their times. In the end I finished 16th, and, I'm very bummed.

On a positive note, I raced a great race as far as pacing and what not goes, but, the spumante avoids me again. I never let up or anything, thinking "Oh, I've got this in the bag!!". In fact, I rode harder cuz I wanted more time, but to no avail.

Just gonna have to go harder next time...